Malice
In the Beginning (Lim. Collectors Edition)

Here is another classic of American heavy metal that needed this re-release. A band that has everything that heavy music demands: perfect instrumentals, excellent vocals and inspired songs. You only need to listen to tracks like "Air Attack" and "Into The Ground" once to become a fan of the group. This re-release should be placed in a prominent place in your collection.

Released in 1985 by Atlantic and produced in part by metal meistro Max Norman, this album deserved a much richer fate than it ultimately received. There are moments throughout this recording, many, many moments in fact, when it sounds as though this is a Judas Priest recording in every detail. I am certain some Priest fans could be fooled into thinking this is an unreleased Priest CD, the sound is so similar, especially singer James Neal's voice, compared to Rob Halford. The songs are all very strong heavy riff oriented. They are primarily up tempo musically, with excellent vocals that tend to live in the upper register, as was virtually required by metal singers at the time. Highlights on the CD are album opener "Rockin' With You", the Priest clone tune "Air Attack", "Hellrider", "No Haven For The Raven", "The Unwanted" and the completely stellar "Godz of Thunder", which features incredible lyrics like "Pentagram drawn out in blood, I am bound by the greed of a thirsty god, help me, is there no end to eternity, set me free, from the chains of hells infernity"! Yes, that's right, "infernity" - eternal inferno, one of the two new words James Neal added to the English language. The other word being "fantacide" (death by fantasy) on their followup album. "In The Beginning" is a supurb CD by a band that just didn't get the breaks they needed, although they deserved them.

Real Metal! James Neal was one of the best pure rock singers of that era!